String

Pronunciation

• IPA: /stɹɪŋ/
• US IPA: /stɹiːŋ/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋ

Origin

From Middle English string, streng, strynge, from Old English streng ("string, cord, rope; tackle, rigging; ligament, ligature, sinew; line, lineage"), from Proto-Germanic *strangiz ("string"), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- ("rope, cord, strand; to tighten"). Cognate with Scots string ("string"), Dutch streng ("cord, strand"), Low German strenge ("strand, cord, rope"), German Strang ("strand, cord, rope"), Danish streng ("string"), Swedish sträng ("string, cord, wire"), Icelandic strengur ("string"), Latvian stringt ("to be tight, wither"), Latin strangulō (), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, "tied together, entangled, twisted").

Full definition of string

Noun

1. (countable) A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together.
• PriorRound Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystic string.
2. (uncountable) Such a structure considered as a substance.
3. (countable) Any similar long, thin and flexible object.a violin stringa bowstring
4. A thread or cord on which a number of objects or parts are strung or arranged in close and orderly succession; hence, a line or series of things arranged on a thread, or as if so arranged.a string of shells or beads; a string of sausages
• Gibbona string of islands
5. (countable) A cohesive substance taking the form of a string.The string of spittle dangling from his chin was most unattractive
6. (countable) A series of items or events.a string of successes
7. (countable, computing) An ordered sequence of text characters stored consecutively in memory and capable of being processed as a single entity.
8. (music, countable) A stringed instrument.
9. (music, usually in plural) The stringed instruments as a section of an orchestra, especially those played by a bow, or the persons playing those instruments.
10. (in the plural) The conditions and limitations in a contract collecively. (cf. no strings attached)no strings attached
11. (countable, physics) the main object of study in string theory, a branch of theoretical physics
12. (slang) cannabis or marijuana
13. A miniature game of billiards, where the order of the play is determined by testing who can get a ball closest to the bottom rail by shooting it onto the end rail.
14. The points made in a game of billiards.
15. A strip, as of leather, by which the covers of a book are held together.
16. A fibre, as of a plant; a little fibrous root.
• Francis BaconDuckweed putteth forth a little string into the water, from the bottom.
17. A nerve or tendon of an animal body.
• Bible, Mark vii. 35The string of his tongue was loosed.
18. (shipbuilding) An inside range of ceiling planks, corresponding to the sheer strake on the outside and bolted to it.
19. (botany) The tough fibrous substance that unites the valves of the pericarp of leguminous plants.the strings of beans
20. (mining) A small, filamentous ramification of a metallic vein.
21. (architecture) A stringcourse.

Synonyms

Derived terms

• score string
• second string

Synonyms

• (long, thin structure): cord, rope, line
• (this structure as a substance): cord, rope, twine
• (anything long and thin):
• (cohesive substance in the form of a string):
• (series of items or events): sequence, series
• (sequence of characters in computing):
• (stringed instruments): string section the strings, or the string section
• (conditions): conditions, provisos

Verb

1. (transitive) To put (items) on a string.You can string these beads on to this cord to make a colorful necklace.
2. (transitive) To put strings on (something).It is difficult to string a tennis racket properly.

Synonyms

• (put on a string): thread
• (put strings on): lace

Derived terms